How much is a concert ticket?\u00c2\u00a0 No less than thirty bucks, oftentimes a hundred?\u00c2\u00a0 Then why the fuck do we have to eat HOT DOGS???<\/p>\n
Make no mistake.\u00c2\u00a0 People go for the music.\u00c2\u00a0 Book U2 anywhere and they’re going to sell out.\u00c2\u00a0 But how about the marginal acts.\u00c2\u00a0 How about the over-the-hill acts.\u00c2\u00a0 How about the developing acts.\u00c2\u00a0 How do we get more fans, even tire-kickers, to take a chance.\u00c2\u00a0 To sit in their living room and say, I THINK I’LL GO TO THE GIG???<\/p>\n
I grew up with Tanglewood.\u00c2\u00a0 My parents waxed rhapsodic about going to Tanglewood.\u00c2\u00a0 My mother STILL goes to Tanglewood.\u00c2\u00a0 And it’s two hours away.<\/p>\n
Ever been on the lawn at Tanglewood??\u00c2\u00a0 You can see maybe if you’re in the very first row and standing, maybe the second, after that there are NO sightlines.\u00c2\u00a0 And then the lawn SLOPES AWAY!\u00c2\u00a0 But, the venue is in a cool setting, it’s an event, and the talent is first rate, so my mother goes a couple of times a summer.<\/p>\n
Can you imagine sitting at home and saying you want the SHED experience?\u00c2\u00a0 Ever been to the "shed" in Glen Helen, California?\u00c2\u00a0 It resembles a moonscape.\u00c2\u00a0 From some sub-"Star Wars" pic.\u00c2\u00a0 With all the dust and crud of "Star Wars" but none of the charisma.\u00c2\u00a0 The venue was built for one thing and one thing only…\u00c2\u00a0 TO MAKE MONEY!<\/p>\n
Now if you’re appealing to people with no money…\u00c2\u00a0 People on food stamps.\u00c2\u00a0 Then I can see offering sub-McDonald’s fare.\u00c2\u00a0 But, do you really think all these people laying out all these bucks, paying ten dollars for PARKING, are dying to eat Pizza Hut and KETTLE CORN??<\/p>\n
Used to be ski areas were known for overpriced burgers with limp lettuce.\u00c2\u00a0 And charging a fortune therefor.\u00c2\u00a0 But, Charlie Gillett had a vision.\u00c2\u00a0 He knew how much people spent to come to Vail, investing THOUSANDS, maybe they’d pay a bit more for a BETTER EXPERIENCE!<\/p>\n
If your ski area has fixed grip chairlifts today you’re going out of business.\u00c2\u00a0 The public won’t stand for it.\u00c2\u00a0 The ticket’s just TOO EXPENSIVE to stand in line.\u00c2\u00a0 They came to ski, they want to ski MORE!<\/p>\n
Charlie Gillett ripped out all the old chairlifts and replaced them with high speed quads.\u00c2\u00a0 And then he changed the fare.\u00c2\u00a0 Every lodge on the mountain sold different food.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, you could buy a burger or hot dog here and there, but you could also get barbecue, sushi, Chinese, there was even a SKI UP pizza kiosk.\u00c2\u00a0 But the slices didn’t resemble what’s sold by Domino’s, rather they were more akin to Wolfgang Puck.\u00c2\u00a0 People now LOOKED FORWARD to lunch.\u00c2\u00a0 It ENHANCED the experience.\u00c2\u00a0 They didn’t bitch about prices, for just a little more it was like GOING OUT instead of being RIPPED OFF!<\/p>\n
And Vail is the most successful ski area in the United States.\u00c2\u00a0 It gets the most skier visits.<\/p>\n
Not that Vail is a free-standing corporation.\u00c2\u00a0 The parent company owns Breckenridge, Keystone, Heavenly…<\/p>\n
And its main competitor is Intrawest.\u00c2\u00a0 Which owns Whistler, Copper, Stratton…\u00c2\u00a0 Consolidation has HELPED skiers, BEEN GOOD for skiers.\u00c2\u00a0 Why in the hell has consolidation not been good for MUSIC FANS??<\/p>\n
There’s no roof over the Hollywood Bowl.\u00c2\u00a0 Parking is hell.\u00c2\u00a0 But book almost anything there and people will come.\u00c2\u00a0 For the EXPERIENCE!<\/p>\n
Which the venue tries to make better.<\/p>\n
There are park and ride buses.\u00c2\u00a0 You can park FOR FREE and ride on a bus to the venue FOR FREE!\u00c2\u00a0 And, to ascend to the higher reaches of the venue there are ESCALATORS!\u00c2\u00a0 And the food…down by the expensive seats it’s by PATINA!\u00c2\u00a0 One of L.A.’s premier restaurant establishments.\u00c2\u00a0 Eight bucks for a turkey sandwich?\u00c2\u00a0 That’s a bargain from Patina.\u00c2\u00a0 And you know it will be edible.\u00c2\u00a0 And IT IS!<\/p>\n
The Fillmore East never served high quality food, but it presented a high quality experience.\u00c2\u00a0 You got a PROGRAM!\u00c2\u00a0 FOR FREE!\u00c2\u00a0 Can you envision one of TODAY’S concert promoters giving anything away for free?<\/p>\n
The Hollywood Bowl gives you a program.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s a SOUVENIR!\u00c2\u00a0 Makes you want to come back, to collect MORE memorabilia.<\/p>\n
The record companies ignored the fan and business tanked.\u00c2\u00a0 The movie business ignored the fan and business tanked.\u00c2\u00a0 The concert business has ignored the fan and business has tanked.\u00c2\u00a0 Everybody’s just lamenting that it’s not the way it used to be.\u00c2\u00a0 Well, the only way things are going to turn around is if you put the customer first.\u00c2\u00a0 If you spend a little to make a lot.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe not reaping rewards today, but tomorrow.<\/p>\n
<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
How much is a concert ticket?\u00c2\u00a0 No less than thirty bucks, oftentimes a hundred?\u00c2\u00a0 Then why the fuck do we have to eat HOT DOGS??? Make no mistake.\u00c2\u00a0 People go for the music.\u00c2\u00a0 Book U2 anywhere and they’re going to sell out.\u00c2\u00a0 But how about the marginal acts.\u00c2\u00a0 How about the over-the-hill acts.\u00c2\u00a0 How about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-1Y","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}